Artist of the Week: Big Sean

June 27, 2011 06:00:43 GMT

The protege of Kanye West follows up his No. 1 single with a collection of feel-good songs 'Finally Famous', and he aims big with it.

Doing rap since he was just 12, Big Sean got a lifetime opportunity to rap for Kanye West in 2005. It took all his courage to come to the rap mogul and asked to do freestyle. "I was so scared, I was rapping to the pavement, but when I looked up, I saw a big crowd had gathered. And everyone cheered," he recalled. "It was my moment."

Two years later, Sean was signed to Kanye's G.O.O.D Music and attained media attention with his mixtapes. While dropping one street album after another, he's also busy doing campaign with his mentor kanye for G.O.O.D Friday music treatment. He contributed in five songs with one of them appearing as a bonus track for "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy".

His career started to go overdrive in 2010 when he earned "New Joint" status at BET's 106 & Park. It was followed by a new mixtape "Finally Famous Vol. 3: BIG" which has been downloaded by more than 750,000 people and spun a slew of music videos which received more than 7 million views on YouTube.

Four years after sealing the deal with Kanye, Sean is finally set to release his major-label debut album across the United States on June 28. As a precursor to what he has to offer, the rapper dropped a first single "My Last" which features Chris Brown. Coming from production hands of No I.D., the piano-laced tune peaked at No. 4 on Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Song chart and climbed to No. 1 on Rap Song list.

On heels of his "My Last" success, Sean was dubbed by a proud Kanye as the Beyonce Knowles of Hip-Hop. Weighing on the compliment, he said he doesn't plan on letting down his mentor. "You know, I am gonna be that. I'm gonna take it there. I'm not gonna make 'Ye eat his words or anything. I appreciate him being so outspoken and for believing in me so much. It gives me my own confidence," he gushed.